Commonly assigned prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,305,042, issued Apr. 19, 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,334, issued Sep. 13, 1994, each disclose a film cassette which is capable of being operated to thrust a filmstrip out of the cassette housing regardless of whether the filmstrip is fresh unexposed film, is partially exposed/unexposed film, or is fully exposed film. As a consequence, the film cassette is provided with film exposure-status indicating means which is adjustable for providing individual visible indications that the filmstrip inside the cassette housing is unexposed, is only partially exposed, or is fully exposed.
Commonly assigned prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,600, issued Oct. 23, 1990, discloses a camera intended to be used with the film cassette when the filmstrip inside the cassette housing is unexposed or is partially exposed/unexposed. This is possible because the camera can operate the film cassette to return the filmstrip to the cassette housing when the filmstrip is only partly exposed and can operate the film cassette to thrust the filmstrip including the partially exposed film from the cassette housing to expose only the unexposed film. In this instance, the film cassette with the partially exposed film would be removed from the camera and not be put back into the camera until some later time. If the film cassette is operated to return the partially exposed film to the cassette housing, the camera changes the film exposure-status indicating means from a visible indication that the filmstrip inside the cassette housing is unexposed to a visible indication that the filmstrip is partially exposed. Conversely, when the filmstrip is fully exposed and returned to the cassette housing, the camera changes the film exposure-status indicating means from a visible indication that the filmstrip inside the cassette housing is unexposed or is partially exposed to a visible indication that the filmstrip is fully exposed.
Commonly assigned prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,197, issued Aug. 7, 1990, discloses a camera intended to be used with the film cassette only when the filmstrip inside the cassette housing is unexposed. This is due to the inability of the camera to operate the film cassette to thrust the filmstrip including the partially exposed film from the cassette housing to expose only the unexposed film. In this instance, a film cassette with partially exposed film would not put back into the camera. Thus, the camera will only change the film exposure-status indicating means from a visible indication that the filmstrip inside the cassette housing is unexposed to a visible indication that the filmstrip is fully exposed.